Cold Spring Ranch land exchange moving forward slowly

Strand Hill access could reopen this summer

Cold Spring Ranch owner Michele Veltri and the Forest Service have been negotiating a land exchange for four months now in an effort to end a decades-long dispute over land use. Talks are moving slowly. But as moderator and former county commissioner Jim Starr informed the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, April 19, progress is being made that could allow bikers onto the popular Strand Hill Road as early as this summer.

“We are moving forward, albeit slower than anyone hoped to be moving,” Starr said.
The group has held two meetings—a video conference call in January and a phone meeting three weeks ago—to rectify a 1980s land survey by the Bureau of Land Management that revealed some of the land behind the Veltri property’s fence line was actually Forest Service land.
“We asked for two things,” Starr told the commissioners. “To discuss what parcels might be available [for exchange], and working on an agreement for this summer because in July, [the Veltris] are slated to go from paying $2,000 to almost $12,000 in special use fees.”
Veltri, who operates the ranch with his mother, has been paying a special use fee to the Forest Service for continued use of a calving meadow and a parcel of land they turned from sagebrush into pastureland during the 1970s. They use the parcel to hold cattle while they put up hay on the rest of the ranch. According to Starr, the Forest Service contends the Veltris should have been paying more than they have because of the riparian nature of the land.
“We are trying to work out a deal now to stay that increase as long as there is a good faith effort to move forward [with negotiations],” Starr told the commissioners.
The goal is to develop a land exchange that maintains the Veltris’ access to their pastures but also gives the Forest Service land with high quality fisheries.
“Even though the Forest Service land [within the Veltri fence] has never been part of the public domain for access to fishing people, the Forest Service would like similar access for fishing land,” Starr said.
It’s a tall order and may require looking at lands outside Cold Spring Ranch that could be acquired from a land trust or private landowner to then exchange with the Forest Service.
“It’s very difficult within the county, and that’s why we’re trying to work within the ranch,” Starr said, and why an interim agreement would be necessary—a land exchange simply might not be identified by summer. But Starr is cautiously optimistic that an interim agreement will happen.
“During our last conversation, [GMUG public services staff officer] Corey Wong said it’s something they would consider. The big question is what good faith means.”
As a sign of good faith, the Veltris are offering to reopen Strand Hill to bikers before a land exchange agreement is reached. The Farris Creek Trail crosses Cold Spring Ranch before connecting to the public trail system on Strand Hill. At the advice of previous legal counsel, the Veltris denied access to the trail in order to get Forest Service attention. But according to Starr, the Veltris wished they had not closed access to the trail and are looking to reopen it.
Opening the trail would likely call for a revocable license agreement with the county, which would transfer liability for public use of the trail to the county. According to county attorney David Baumgarten, the license protects the Veltris but can be revoked in order to allow the ranch owners to conduct operations, such as a temporary closure during calving season.
“At some point it may be that we come back to the commissioners and ask you to consider such a license,” he said. “Can I consider this as your permission to draft it?”
The commissioners agreed. Starr also informed the commissioners that a separate conservation easement between the Trust for Public Lands and Cold Spring Ranch is also moving forward, and will do so regardless of how the land exchange works out. Intended to keep the Veltri land in production as agricultural land, the funding for the first phase of the project—a grant for the protection of 190 acres on the Cold Spring Ranch—should be approved by the Great Outdoors Colorado board in June. Pleased to hear the update, commissioner Hap Channell did caution against confusing the two projects.
 “Not to diminish the importance of the conservation easement, but it’s important to remember that’s a separate issue,” Channell said.
Starr agreed, but suggested that the conservation easement has been beneficial for the land exchange, making it a smoother communication process. He will meet with the Veltris and the Forest Service again on May 2, to continue consideration of a possible land exchange and to move forward with the interim agreement.